Wide-field cellular-resolution retinal imaging using deformable mirror-based sensorless adaptive optics time-domain...

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Optical Imaging

Background:

• Adaptive optics (AO) provides cellular resolution retinal imaging but is limited by a narrow field of view (FOV).
• Current AO systems face challenges in clinical adoption due to FOV limitations and complexity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a deformable mirror (DM)-based sensorless AO time-domain full-field OCT (FFOCT) system.
• To overcome the FOV limitations of conventional AO ophthalmoscopy.
• To enable wide-field, cellular-resolution retinal imaging for clinical applications.

Main Methods:

• Implemented a sensorless AO system using a deformable mirror (DM) integrated with full-field OCT (FFOCT).
• Leveraged FFOCT's robustness to ocular aberrations under spatially incoherent illumination.
• Utilized correction of 3-5 Zernike modes (defocus, astigmatism, coma) for aberration correction.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated significant enhancement in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and resolution of fine retinal structures.
• Achieved reliable visualization of cone photoreceptors near the foveal center (0.3°).
• Enabled depth-resolved imaging of inner retinal features across a 5°x5° FOV at 500 Hz.

Conclusions:

• The developed AO-FFOCT system simplifies AO implementation while achieving wide-field cellular resolution.
• This approach addresses key limitations of current AO ophthalmoscopes.
• Offers a promising pathway for wider clinical deployment of high-resolution retinal imaging.